


Wash Your Hands for Edward Cullen

by ZydrateNote



Category: Twilight (Movies), Twilight Series - All Media Types, Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: COVID-19, Character Turned Into Vampire, Corona - Freeform, F/M, Imprinting (Twilight), Quarantine, Sick Character, Sickfic, Spanish flu, Vampire Bites, Vampires, Wash Your Hands, Zoom - Freeform, literally im so mad rn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-02
Updated: 2020-04-02
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:00:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23442100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZydrateNote/pseuds/ZydrateNote
Summary: Think about Edward next time you say Covid isn't a big deal.
Relationships: Edward Cullen/Bella Swan, Jacob Black/Renesmee Cullen
Comments: 12
Kudos: 86





	Wash Your Hands for Edward Cullen

“She’s fine, Edward. She can’t catch it.”

“You don’t know that,” Edward said quietly. “There’s no way we can guarantee she’ll be safe.” 

“Renesme is a vampire!” Bella tossed her long chestnut hair over her shoulders. “She doesn’t need to quarantine like-”

“Half-” Edward growled. “She’s only half-vampire.”

He stood up from his piano bench and slammed the lid down on the keys. 

“We have no way of knowing whether or not she’ll be safe. She needs to stay inside with Charlie, where she has been.”

“It’s not that big of a deal. She just wants to visit Jacob. He’s been isolating, both him and his dad. She’ll be-”

“Bella! This is non-negotiable She stays inside.”

“I thought you were through with acting like this. You’ve been a teenager for a hundred years but it’s a bit too long to keep the moodiness.”

“You don’t understand. How could you? How could you  _ possibly  _ understand.”

“You’re right, Edward. I don’t understand. Enlighten me.”

“When Carlisle changed me- when he saved me- he was doing the same thing he is now. He was in a hospital. Elbows deep in blood. People coughing and burning up in beds. He worked around the clock. He refused breaks. He didn’t need to sleep like the other human doctors. He only needed to feed. He would sneak out grab something small and feral from the side of the road.”

1918- Spanish Flu

Carlisle stood, hunched over a woman, choking and sputtering. He held her hand tightly in his own gloved ones. 

“It’s ok,” he whispered. “You’re all right. Mrs. Conlyn, your husband will be here soon. Just hold on until then, ok?”

He looked over his shoulder at the bed behind him where Mr. Conlyn lay. His hand spilled over the edge, wedding ring glinting in the harsh fluorescent lights. One of the nurses at his side tucked it neatly by his side. She pulled his sheet up to cover his face. 

“Just hold on for a minute, Mrs. Conlyn. Nurse Gina said he’s just checking in at the desk.” Carlisle sniffed once, wiping his eyes on the back of his hand. 

Mrs. Conlyn’s hand tightened for a moment, then relaxed falling against her chest. Carlisle paused for a moment, then sighed. “Gina, I’ll take these two down to the morgue. You go down to isolation and see if they need me.”

He bent down and flipped the locks off of Mrs. Conlyn’s cot, pulling it into the center aisle. He unlocked Mr. Conlyn’s too, bringing it beside his late wife. He wheeled the pair of them together. In the mess of whirling staff, no one bothered to ask if he could manage two cots. They let him go. 

He got them into cold storage quickly and loaded them into the iced drawers. He took a long look at the two of them, side by side. Carlisle took a deep breath. It was an unnecessary breath. His lungs need no more air than the two bodies he had just packed away. But he couldn’t go back out right away. Not now. Not with his eyes so dark and his hands so tired. He looked back at the couple. His breath hitched.

Carlisle worked around blood for his entire professional life. He devoted his every day to the protection of life. He had never once been tempted to cheat, to break his strict code. But now, alone in the morgue, he could still smell the blood that had not yet cooled in Mrs. Conyln’s veins. He turned back to her, taking her hand in his, raising her wrist to his mouth-

“Dr. Cullen!” Gina threw open the door. “Come upstairs. Quickly. There’s a young man- we can’t keep him down. The nurses can’t hold him-”

“Take me to him.”

Carlisle tailed the nurse back to the makeshift operating room. He instantly saw the young man in question. Man was an overstatement. Boy was a more accurate term. He couldn’t have been more than seventeen. He was pale, sweating profusely, trashing in his narrow cot. As Carlisle watched he threw an arm out, knocking the nurse aside who was trying to draw blood.

Carlisle swept up to the bed. He caught the boy’s arm, pinning it and placing the IV himself. 

“Get out of here,” his dark eyes flashed.

“But Dr. Cullen-”

“Now, Gina. I’ll take care of him.”

Gina hesitated for a moment, then with a wave of her hand, shepherded the rest of the nurses out of the room leaving Carlisle alone. The boy was almost crying now. He whipped his arm out again but this time Carlisle caught it, putting it back across the boy’s chest. He put his other hand to this neck, feeling for a pulse. It was faint. It was so faint. The boy wasn’t going to last much longer than a few hours. Another body to wheel away into cold storage. 

Carlisle looked down at the boy- Edward according to his chart. He was going to have to wheel him to rest with the bodies probably next to the Conlyns. 

Edward’s hand flicked out again and grasped the front of Carlisle’s scrubs. “P-please-,” he muttered. 

He looked at the sweat-slick hand and he made a decision. He didn’t think. He didn’t stop to consider. He just leaned down and sank his fangs into Edward’s throat. He felt him cry out under him, a cough gurgling with blood now flowing into his windpipe. 

Present Day- Quarantine 

“She’s not going out. I’m not letting anything happen to Renesme. I don’t trust that mutt to even wash his hands.” Edward sat back onto the piano bench. 

Bella stood frozen, her hand over her mouth. “Edward I didn’t-”

“It’s ok, Bella. It’s just- I can’t stand people saying it’s just like the flu. I’ve had the flu. It’s not a walk in the park. It’s a killer. It saps your strength and your life and it leaves you, best-case scenario, as a weakened shell of yourself. She might be half-vampire. We don’t know about that human half. And Jacob- They’re saying dogs can’t catch it. But I can’t risk that. If something happened- Carlisle can’t turn her again. She can- she can Zoom Jacob. That’s what they’re doing nowadays, right?”


End file.
